The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that no fresh FIRs should be filed against Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister M Udhayanidhi Stalin for his "eradicate Sanatan Dharma" remarks.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered no fresh FIR should be filed against Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister M Udhayanidhi Stalin without its nod over his contentious "eradicate Sanatan Dharma" remarks in 2023.
Observing several complaints couldn't be filed on a single issue, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar also extended an interim order on his exemption from personal appearance in courts hearing the existing FIRs.
The bench was hearing Stalin's plea for clubbing the FIRs and transferring the complaints to one place for future proceedings.
It issued notices to the states where the fresh FIRs were lodged on his plea filed in the pending matter.
“Liberty is granted to newly-added respondents (states) to file a response within 15 days from the date of service, and rejoinder if any be filed after 15 days. The interim order to continue and will equally apply to the cases mentioned in the amended writ petition. We direct no further cases be registered without the permission of this court," the bench's order said.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Stalin, said the FIRs were registered in Patna, Jammu, Bangalore aside from Maharashtra and argued all cases could be transferred to a place where the alleged incident took place -- Tamil Nadu.
Singhvi said a fresh case was registered against Stalin in Bihar and a plea for amendment was filed seeking to implead the complainants there in the pending petition.
He referred to the apex court decisions in the case of TV anchor Arnab Goswami, Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair and politician Nupur Sharma and said cases arising out of one incident couldn't be allowed to continue in different places.
"In Nupur Sharma, the words are supposed to be much more offensive, this court transferred in all other cases to the first place where the FIR was first registered. That is the solution in this case," Singhvi said.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Maharashtra, referred to the present case and said it was a "Sanatan Dharma Eradication Conference" where the deputy CM said Sanatana Dharma had to be eradicated like malaria, corona, dengue, etc.
“Kindly appreciate that if a chief minister of another state says similar things about a particular religion, say Islam, should be eradicated, it wouldn't be tolerated,” the law officer said.
The CJI added, "We are not going into the merits of the case… There only one question whether it should be transferred to one place."
Mehta said just because Hindus did not react, the leader couldn't be allowed to say so.
"We would not like the apex court to comment on any words, they have an impact on the trial," the CJI added.
Singhvi objected to Mehta's submissions saying he was "speaking for another audience".
“No, I have no other audience, I cannot hold press conferences like Singhvi,” Mehta said.
Singhvi retorted, “You are holding one now inside the court."
The matter would come up on April 28.
Speaking at a conference in September 2023, Stalin reportedly said Sanatan Dharma was against social justice and equality and should be "eradicated" and compared it to coronavirus, malaria and dengue, asking it to be "destroyed".
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